In various situations it may become desirable to warm or heat a body portion of a subject on a relatively rapid, but controlled basis, in order to achieve a predetermined level of warming. While various methods and approaches have been available for such purposes, they have tended to be slow, ineffective or not readily controllable as to the degree of warming or heating achieved. It has also been difficult to control the positional application and effects to selected areas, relative to other body portions. Certain other mediums, such as x-rays, are difficult to contain and potentially injurious to equipment operators. Also, many potential approaches and mediums capable of providing body heating are not amenable to heating of a subject's entire or substantially entire body on a readily controllable basis.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide new and improved systems and methods for heating body portions, and such systems utilizing controlled application of microwave energy, which may be applied on an incremental sequential basis under computer control.